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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
127
I
confess
that
we're
a
little
flattered
by
that.
Over
and
over:
"It
is
scarcely
necessary
to
suggest
to
the
intelligent
reader
that
thunderstones
are
a
myth."
We
contend
that
there
is
a
misuse
of
a
word
here:
we
admit
that
only
we
are
intelligent
upon
this
subject,
if
by
intelligence
is
meant
the
inquiry
of
inequilibrium,
and
that
all
other
intellection
is
only
mechanical
reflex--of
course
that
intelligence,
too,
is
mechanical,
but
less
orderly
and
confined:
less
obviously
mechanical--that
as
an
acceptance
of
ours
becomes
firmer
and
firmer-established,
we
pass
from
the
state
of
intelligence
to
reflexes
in
ruts.
An
odd
thing
is
that
intelligence
is
usually
supposed
to
be
creditable.
It
may
be
in
the
sense
that
it
is
mental
activity
trying
to
find
out,
but
it
is
confession
of
ignorance.
The
bees,
the
theologians,
the
dogmatic
scientists
are
the
intellectual
aristocrats.
The
rest
of
us
are
plebeians,
not
yet
graduated
to
Nirvana,
or
to
the
instinctive
and
suave
as
differentiated
from
the
intelligent
and
crude.
Blinkenberg
gives
many
instances
of
the
superstition
of
"thunderstones"
which
flourishes
only
where
mentality
is
in
a
lamentable
state--or
universally.
In
Malacca,
Sumatra,
and
Java,
natives
say
that
stone
axes
have
often
been
found
under
trees
that
have
been
struck
by
lightning.
Blinkenberg
does
not
dispute
this,
but
says
it
is
coincidence:
that
the
axes
were
of
course
upon
the
ground
in
the
first
place:
that
the
natives
jumped
to
the
conclusion
that
these
carved
stones
had
fallen
in
or
with
lightning.
In
Central
Africa,
it
is
said
that
often
have
wedge-shaped,
highly
polished
objects
of
stone,
described
as
"axes,"
been
found
sticking
in
trees
that
have
been
struck
by
lightning--or
by
what
seemed
to
be
lightning.
The
natives,
rather
like
the
unscientific
persons
of
Memphis,
Tenn.,
when
they
saw
snakes
after
a
storm,
jumped
to
the
conclusion
that
the
"axes"
had
not
always
been
sticking
in
the
trees.
Livingstone
(Last
Journal,
pages
83,
89,
442,
448)
says
that
he
had
never
heard
of
stone
implements
used
by
natives
of
Africa.
A
writer
in
the
Report
of
the
Smithsonian
Institution,
1877-308,
says
that
there
are
a
few.
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